Dead Frontier/Issue 12

Billie drives while Cole sits in the passenger seat. She's flipping through radio stations, but static rules them all. She slams the radio's power button hard in frustration, effectively shutting it off.

It's been silent most of the ride but Cole finally speaks up. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she says through clenched teeth.

"No you're not."

She glares at him and presses harder on the gas pedal. "I said I'm okay."

"Look, if you want to talk--" Cole begins.

She slams on the brakes, jolting them both forward. "I don't want to fucking talk about anything! You were there; you saw what happened. So what the hell is there to talk about?" Her eyes move to the fuel gauge. "And that's really fucking great. We're almost on empty!"

"Panicking isn't going to help anything," Cole says warily.

"Panicking? Do I look like I'm panicking?"

"...Yes?"

She closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. "We’ll just drive as close to the motel as we can, and see what happens from there."

Hannah, Adam, Dwight, Mercer, and Dommy reach the truck they used to reach the highway before they were cut off by the abandoned cars. They all jump in. Adam takes the driver's seat and pulls away as fast as he can back towards the motel.
"You're bleeding," Hannah says to Dommy. She stares at his right shoulder where there is a large cut with blood dripping from it.

"I think...I might've been scratched or something." Dommy tries to move his right shoulder but grimaces in pain.

"Holy fuck!" Dwight exclaims from the backseat. He has a rag pressed on Mercer's bloody ankle. "You're gonna turn into an infected?"

"No! I...I don't know!"

"I'm not about to get bit." Dwight pulls his pistol out of its holster and points it at Dommy.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Hannah shouts.

"What's best for all of us. He's done for. A scratch, a bite, whatever, and you're dead."

"Look at me!" Dommy says. "I'm fine! I don't feel anything."

"Yeah, you don't feel it now, but that's how it tricks you. Soon, you'll be dead and walking like all those other fucks out there." Dwight vaguely gestures to the window where a few infected can be seen roaming along the otherwise deserted road.

"You are fucking insane!" Hannah shouts at Dwight. "You are not going to shoot him."

"Everyone, shut the hell up!" Adam screams from the driver's seat. He can feel the sweat beads racing down his forehead. "No one is going to shoot anyone, so Dwight, please. Just put the gun down."

Dwight glares at Dommy and Hannah for a few moments and then reluctantly lowers his gun. He goes back to tending to Mercer's bleeding ankle.

"Thanks," Dommy says to Hannah.

"Don't mention it."

The car sputters to a stop, and Billie slaps the dashboard. "And... we're empty."
Cole, now feeling a bit drowsy, looks out the window. All he sees are a few lone houses and thickets of trees. Thankfully, there are no infected in sight.

"And in the middle of nowhere. The motel's like, what, 10 miles away?" Cole says.

"About 10 would be my best guess." She reaches into the backseat for her shotgun. "Stay here."

"What are you doing?"

"Going to check out that house over there." She points to a small, one story house. The red paint is peeling and the roof is partly sunken in, but it looks habitable. "Don't even think about coming. You've done enough damage to your leg." At that, she exits the driver's side door, clutching her shotgun.

Billie closes the car door quietly and approaches the small red house. She circles around it, but all the windows are boarded up, which prevents her from getting a good look inside. She moves back to the front of the house and tries the front door. She turns the doorknob. Locked. Of course.

She quickly heads back to the car and checks it for weapons. In the trunk, she finds a large red axe. "Nice," she mutters to herself as she turns the weapons in her hands. Billie jogs back towards the house and begins smashing the wooden front door with her new axe.

After a few good hits, she reaches in through the hole in the door and turns the knob. The door creaks open and the smells of death and shit hit her instantly. She coughs and covers her mouth and nose with her shirt.

The living room and kitchen have nothing out of the ordinary; Billie even finds a bag of potato chips. But when she reaches the one bedroom in the house she finds the source of the terrible smell.

Her eyes sting from the powerful stench and from the emotions that hit her when she sees the family of four dead in the room: a man, a woman, and two children. Each person has a large hole in her head, and the man holds a shotgun towards his face. Billie can't help but notice that the two kids were near the door, probably trying to run away.

Billie runs from the room and vomits until her stomach is empty. She dry heaves for a few moments and stumbles out of the house with teary eyes. She quickly scrambles back into the driver's seat and when Cole sees her, he asks, "What's wrong?"

"We'll sleep in the car instead."

It is the middle of the night, and Cole and Billie are sleeping in the car. Cole awakens covered in sweat and with a pounding headache. He adjusts his body in the seat and pain shoots up his calf instantly.

He reaches towards the car's ceiling and turns on the light. He slowly removes the sleeve of Billie's jacket that she used as a makeshift bandage and examines his leg.

His calf is swollen and the cut is caked with blood. Just looking at it wants to make him gag. He can feel himself getting dizzy and passes out, his head hitting the window.